Supporting a Positive Student- Centered Culture

Cassandra Young

Grand Canyon University: 513

March 1, 2021
 Supporting a Positive Student-Centered Culture

When working within the classrooms our interactions that we have with students need to

be centered around the culture we strive for within our room. Based on our environment we set

up for them to the strategies we teach them to follow before, during and after instructions is key.

But also, the activities that we plan for them to do during class should be conducive for their

learning in our class. During this time, we must remind ourselves that they only know what to do

and how to do something if we teach them before and during the moment of the situation. There

are always areas of improvement for teachers and hearing ideas from our administrators help

guide new strategies to implement inside the classroom.

Strategy 1 and Purpose

During both the observations that I made I would suggest adding movement within the

long periods that the students are sitting. Student’s need to be up moving and active during

learning. Movement helps the brain stay awake and get adequate oxygen to it for learning. Based

on my observations, students were sitting too much of the time they were learning. Creating

movements based on the book you are reading will keep them engaged and following

expectations while also learning. Also, while teaching math they need the brain working to

produce the concepts so movement would be a great addition to their review.

Implementation of Strategy

To implement the strategy of movement teachers, need to plan ahead for the movement

and coach the students on what they should be doing. If you wanted to have students be more

engaged in the reading of the book, then add in a movement break between having them look at

the screen and when they transition their body to the story. The small re engagements that were
needed during the story would change but you would also get more thoughtful answers since the

brain has more oxygen going to it.

Anticipated Effects of Strategy

Anticipated effects of the movement strategy would be to have higher engagement in the

discussion that was occurring during the reading of the story. It would give students a chance to

get the wiggles out before moving to another sitting activity. “Researcher Terrence Dwyer found

that exercise improves classroom behavior and academic performance” (Jensen, 2019). If

students are moving, they are able to participate better during discussion or sit to focus better due

to having that exercise that they needed. Students' needs are being met, which makes the needs of

academics being met as well.

Aligns to School Vision

This recommendation of movement aligns with our school’s vision by allowing all

students to achieve and rise to challenges that we set before them. It also allows for the teacher to

offer more challenging questions to students to support high order thinking to reach high

academics. By having students moving, it teaches them about personal space and to create

positive social interactions with other students which allows all children to learn to engage with

each other at a young age. It also lets the culture of the room continue to move in a positive

direction.

Strategy 2 and Purpose

During my observation of the kindergarten classroom there were many positive

interactions that were happening between the students and the teacher. The teacher could
incorporate songs that include the subject they are learning about, in this case either character

traits or what defines a fairy tale. Kids were able to pull out traits from characters based off a list

she was presenting but if they could do it on their own with a song that would be powerful for

their memory. Also, adding in a song of how to know if a book is a fairy tale would help students

remember the characteristics that a fairy tale book needed to have. This way after you are done

teaching fairy tales, the students would be able to compare and contrast other books against a

fairy tale by knowing this song.

Implementation of Strategy

To implement the strategy of a song would take some pre planning for the teacher since

they would either must come up with a song or find one that relates to what they are doing. After

teaching the characteristics of what qualifies a book as a fairy tale then teaching them the song to

pull out the definitions would be imperative to the students learning. Next, you would practice

and sing the song with the students each time you want them to recall the characteristics of a

fairy tale. Then slowly let the students be the only ones to do it. After the unit on fairy tales and

going to the next category of book genre, have them tie back in the idea of fairy tales and

compare and contrast the two types of books.

Anticipated Effects of Strategy

Anticipated effects of the song strategy will not be quick results due to having to teach

the students the song and having them practice it with you. The results should allow students to

be able to recall the characteristics of what describes a fairy tale compared to other types of

genres. “Kimmel states that a song is probably the best all-around mnemonic device for

facilitating a student’s recall of facts, definitions and concepts” (Hayes, 2009). If we can start
students out younger recalling facts and concepts of stories, then when they must dig into these

concepts farther down the road, they already know what makes it that genre. Now, able to

quickly recall and pull-out defining features of that specific genre, the student could give

reasoning behind the author's tone and mood of the story.

Aligns to School Vision

This recommendation of song aligns with our school's vision in many ways especially

with the Kindergarten age group. They are being offered a challenging curriculum and making it,

so every student can achieve and learn concepts. It pushes the teachers to be creative to reach

students that are struggling to recall the concepts of what makes something a fairy tale. Having a

rigorous curriculum with high expectations still must be presented to students in multiple ways,

that way it is able to be recalled in later classes but accessible for all in the room.

Observation Reflection

It was a change of pace for me to observe how our mission and vision statements lead all

the way down to our kindergarten classroom and back up to a fifth-grade classroom or middle

school classroom like the one I teach in. Both teachers I observed interacted with the students

and wanted them to lead the discussion in the classroom, using higher order thinking questions to

guide the students. They were able to remind students in a positive way that they loved hearing

their voice, but they needed to hear other people in the class thinking as well. They made sure

not to discourage the students from wanting to share again. I found it interesting in the

kindergarten room that the environment in the classroom was more student centered where the

middle school and fifth grade classroom were more based on needs for learning.
 As I was observing and thinking of the recommendations to make to the teachers it made

me must think of what would be best for the students. Movement and memory/recall is so

imperative for students when they reach middle school because they must be able to do both in a

timely non disruptive way. These recommendations also come from a place of what all good

teachers should be doing to engage their students and grow them into independent thinkers for

later in life. Many times, we forget that those are skills students need for the future. After

submitting these recommendations to the dean over the kindergarten teacher, he thought that

these were great ideas for her to implement in her classroom to have her grow her own teacher

toolbox. The dean stated he would release the information to her during their next one on one

meeting to help her develop these skills since she is a first-year teacher. 

Implications for Future Practice

If I was getting the chance to present the material to the teacher, I would remind her of all

the great interactions that I saw between her and the students. I would ask her if there were

things that she felt she could change to improve the interactions between students along with

getting more from the discussion. There is a chance my ideas may not come up directly from her,

so then I would share what I was thinking but give her the reason behind my thinking, which is

based on the research within education. As a future leader I want to remind myself that when

new ideas or strategies were given to me, gradually releasing them to my teachers is very

important otherwise they could get overwhelmed. Reminding them of all the great interactions

and strategies that were seen in the classroom is also important because teachers need to hear

what they are doing correctly, but they also need adequate feedback. By giving them adequate

feedback with a strategy, the why behind the strategy is explained as well as areas they can

implement it. Giving the feedback cold with no idea of where implantation can occur would be
difficult for the teacher. The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) stated that

leaders should motivate teachers and staff to the highest levels of professional practice and to

continuous learning with improvement (National Policy Board for Educational Administration,

2015). Helping teachers improve their instruction strategies within their classrooms allows them

to continue to learn and improve for the students, we must encourage them to be the best they

can be at their practice. 

To continue the learning of teachers for the betterment of students, it is helpful to have

others observe us and give feedback along with recommendations. It only helps us continue to

learn as teachers. As a striving leader, how to give that feedback to someone is key as well. We

must practice what word choices we need to say but also what we should be looking for. During

my observations I picked up on instructional routines that could be changed up to let the students

be more comfortable with their teacher, but it would not necessarily have any implications on the

culture of the room. Practice is what makes us better teachers, practice is what makes us better at

learning, and that means practice will make me a better leader in the end. 
 Reference

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM Recognition Standards: Building Level For institutions

undergoing NCATE Accreditation and ELCC Program Review. (2011).

http://www.npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ELCC-Building-Level-Standards-2011.pdf

Hayes, O. (2009). Mnemonics 1 TITLE PAGE The Use of Melodic and Rhythmic Mnemonics To

Improve Memory and Recall in Elementary Students in the Content Areas Mnemonics 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED504997.pdf

Jensen, E. (2019). Movement and Learning. Ascd.org.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx